


Life Sacrifice

by Lady_Katana4544



Series: H/C Bingo [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, Gen, Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 05:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Katana4544/pseuds/Lady_Katana4544
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the hc_bingo prompt, sacrifice.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Life Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the hc_bingo prompt, sacrifice.

She is not used to having a team at her back.

At most she is used to working with Clint and SHIELD by extension through Agent Phil Coulson, of whom Clint seems to trust with his life. And she has slowly come to trust him as well.

But never has she had a full team to learn trust with and eventually come to protect as her own.

Looking on the situation from all angles, she can easily which of the team will come out of this encounter alive. Their enemy is not a villain that she is familiar with or had been able to find in the files on the SHIELD helicarrier.

From her position, she can take stock of her team's various conditions.

She flicks a quick glance over them. Thor, Banner, and Rogers are the first three that she sees, Rogers and Thor's chests both heaving against their cells as they try to break free despite the thin deceptive collars around their bruised necks. Banner is obviously trying to keep calm and prevent the Hulk from making an appearance in his cell.

Clint is cradling a hand to his chest, the other one twitching against his hip bone and staring at something she hadn't looked in the direction of yet. She notes the darkening bruise on his left cheek, noting it in her mind as another mark to lay against their captor. At first she doesn't find Stark, a brief twinge of odd feelings skirt through her until a soft groan leads her attention towards another cell.

The man isn't the best shape of their group, but neither is he in good condition. What little Pepper and he had deigned to teach her that SHIELD had not already learned about the arc reactor in the man's chest told her enough to know that the flickering of the reactor's light didn't mean anything good for Stark.

Though she knows now what it means for her. She doesn't want the blood of one or more of her teammates that she couldn't save on her ledger.

She knows that if he could and was up for it, Stark would try to sacrifice himself again for the good of the team. He did it once in the fight against Loki and several times more since the team had come together. Any of them would do it, including Clint if he were given the chance to she knows this all too well.

They would do it for her, in her heart she knows that she would do it for them as well. If only to keep her ledger clean of their blood.

The door of their cell block opens and she straightens her spine as their captor looks in on them through the face mask. But she knows when their eyes meet and she knows then that she wants to sacrifice her own life so that her team will live. 

So that her family can survive.

She knows how the moment Clint makes the connection of what is going to happen when she feels the weight of his gaze settling on her and knows how long it will take the others to make the connection as well. Though by then it will already be done.

“Ah yes little Widow, it is your turn now. Ready for some fun?”

“Indeed. My life for theirs.”

“Indeed so.”

“Excellent choice.”

Then she's off into the darkness of the room beyond the cell block with her team trying to call her back, including Stark even as his reactor is giving out on him. They must be the ones to survive this place even if she doesn't.


End file.
